14 Responses to G.O.S.P.E.L

Well this is indeed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, presented in a very creative way.
Mormons, this is not the Gospel you preach or are counting on for eternal life.
There is a distinct difference in the Mormon gospel. The Mormon gospel doesn’t agree with what the Bible says about who God is, who man is, what God has done to reconcile man to Himself, and what the eternal destiny of man is if he accepts or if he rejects the plan God has clearly articulated.
We are sinners by nature. The Bible tells us that through one man sin entered the world. One man sinned and condemnation was imputed to and inherited by (his) off spring. We’re not a little bit sick in our sin. We are stone, cold dead; without life and without hope if left to ourselves.
But God so loved us that at the appointed time Christ Jesus died for the unjust, justifying us through the shed blood of the cross. It is through faith that we receive this free gift that God is offering us.
Now that’s not the Mormon gospel. It’s pretty easy to compare and contrast what Mormonism teaches and believes and see the significant difference with Christianity. Any Mormon who thinks it’s all the same just isn’t paying attention.
Mormonism is “another” gospel, plain and simple. Using similar sounding language and terms but with totally different meanings, is planned deception. My challenge to Mormons is to preach your gospel loud, clear and accurately.
When I heard Mitt Romney on TV during the last presidential campaign say that he had “accept Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior” and then Joel Osteen say that if Romney had said that it was good enough for him, makes you wonder if either knows the difference?

Aaron,
I loved this! Thanks for posting. As a Mormon I never felt good enough no matter how many good “works” I did. There was always more that needed to be done. What freedom I have now in Christ! It frees me to be a better person. How ironic huh?

My challenge to Mormons is to preach your gospel loud, clear and accurately.

Yeah I’m tired of them hiding. Why, they should make make their bible freely available on their website. Link to all their sunday school materials in obvious place like lds.org. They should fund a university whose professors would have authored thousands of books on every area of their theology. They should host forums where people discuss those issues. They should run a book company to distribute the materials. They should have their leadership publish doctrinal guides. And finally, they should fund apologetics ministries to address points of distinction squarely.

Oh wait… well umm umm

OK well they definitely shouldn’t publish bible translations with their theology injected into it. They definitely shouldn’t try and rewrite Christian history so they can claim historical continuity. And they definitely shouldn’t make use of ambiguities in translating the creeds from Latin or Greek into English so as to advance novel Conservative theologies as “eternal teaching”. (this paragraph should be in blue, don’t know of that works)

What was that? They aren’t doing any of that. Yeah you’re right that part isn’t them. Must have them confused with another group… the PSA no, PTA no… I’ll get it eventually.

This guy was at my Church a couple months back and did this! (Central Christian Church, Henderson NV) Brought me to tears.

The part that got me is when he said “we use the same breath He gave us to curse Him” – puts into perspective our depravity. So very true that we can’t match up to the perfection of our Creator. He is awesome.

CD
Every time you post you show that you are a vast warehouse of mis-information and ignorance.
I think what you need to do is have a couple Mormon missionaries over to your house and listen quietly and respectfully to their lessons which take several meetings and see if they present the Mormon view of the nature of the Mormon god, the nature of man and what Mormon salvation entails.
In-other-words, will they tell you that they believe that there are millions and perhaps billions of gods? Will they tell you that their religion teaches that men will become gods? Will they tell you that in order to become a god you must pay at least 10% of your income to the LDS Inc. so that you can receive a temple recommend in order to do rituals that assist you in becoming a god? Will they tell you about “callings” that you are required to do and will eat up your personal time?
You obviously haven’t heard of the Mormon use of the term “milk before meat”. It’s an excuse Mormons use to alibi why they don’t tell prospects the real nitty gritty of the religion.
Your hate and dripping disdain for Christianity is apparent as has been pointed out several times. Your excuse that you’re defending Mormonism, despite the fact that you’re an atheist, is pretty transparent. We all know why you’re here and it certainly isn’t to defend or even discuss Mormonism.
I think it’s time for the moderators to pull your ticket!

It’s been chronicled several times on this site the appearance of past Mormon “prophet” G.B. Hinkley on “Larry King Live” and his answer to Larry King’s question about the Mormon “men to god” doctrine. G.B.H. answers, “I don’t know that we’ve ever taught that”. Really? The Mormon “prophet” doesn’t know anything about the most fundamental doctrine in Mormonism? Give me a break!
That’s what we mean when we say that Mormons have a very bad habit of obfuscating, mis-directing, fogging and lying when it comes to their doctrine, practices and history. The foundation for this goes back to the founding of Mormonism when the leaders were practicing polygamy and at the same time denying it.
Mormons have coined the phrase “shaken faith syndrome” to describe what happens when a Mormon finds out the truth about their religion. The result is a feeling of having been lied to and deceived. It’s pretty tough to bring someone back into the fold once they are exposed to the truth.

Kate, I had my wife read your post and she smiled because she has experienced
the same freedom you have. No more belonging to a false prophet led organization,
no more striving to gain God’s favor by submitting to all the ” new light ” from
the prophet. I could go on and on. It thrills me to meet all those here who have
found their freedom in Jesus. Those like you really know how powerful that
can be.

Falcon, in your first post you laid out the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in plain
terms. I think Mormon leaders expect a lot from those that follow them. So much
in fact that it truely is another gospel. There’s hope for them , that’s why we are here.
[ Don’t let others side track you. ]

I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it. I haven’t heard it discussed for a long time in public discourse. I don’t know. I don’t know all the circumstances under which that statement was made. I understand the philosophical background behind it. But I don’t know a lot about it and I don’t know that others know a lot about it

I wouldn’t call exaltation “the most fundamental doctrine”. AFAIK one can disbelieve in exaltation and maintain a temple recommend, and I know for sure that denial of 3 heavens isn’t considered an excommunicatable heresy. Hinkley basically said 2 things:“I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it.”

Not emphasize, I think is borderline. Heavenly father’s past is more something that comes up in interfaith dialogue. For example if you were to participate in Reformed / Catholic dialogue the question of canon would come up all the time. The question of the original authority to form parishes in the US would come up. That doesn’t come up much among Reformed when talking to themselves. I can see someone saying “not emphasize” though I’d still think its near the border of dishonest.

I don’t know that we teach it. Is just inexcusable. I’m out of words or I’d quote Hinkley’s Conference Report from Oct. 1994 where he teaches it! Gospel Principles ends with a chapter on exaltation.

So I agree 100% that’s bad. I’m holding back from presenting similar examples from your team though.

Thank you Brian & Mike.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t all that complex in the sense that God has made Himself obvious to men as Paul explains in the Book of Romans.
Joseph Smith had exposure to the Gospel as he lived in an area that was a hot-bed of revivalism. It was so hot that it was referred to as the “burnt over” area. Often times when there is intense spiritual revival fire, there will be a strain of heresy that emerges. This is what happens when people get caught up in the emotions of the movement but don’t get well grounded in the Word of God.
False prophets will take advantage of this and seduce people into sects that have a hint of the flavor of the truth, but are basically counterfeit. Joseph Smith did this over time with his group as we have seen with his rather conventional beginning and then his movement towards more and more bizarre doctrines and practices.
The people who had more of a grasp of the Word were able to resist Smith’s plunge into darkness. It’s gratifying to see Mormons who once exposed to the true light of the Gospel, reject Smith’s false restoration bid.

falcon,
What is interesting to me about this quote from Gordon Hinkley to Time magazine is that he answered to a direct question it went like this:

Q: Just another related question that comes up is the statements in the King Follet discourse by the Prophet.

A: Yeah

Q: … about that, God the Father was once a man as we were. This is something that Christian writers are always addressing. IS THIS THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH TODAY,THAT GOD THE FATHER WAS ONCE A MAN LIKE WE ARE?

A: I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it. I haven’t heard it discussed for a long time in public discourse. I don’t know. I don’t know all the circumstances under which that statement was made. I understand the philosophical background behind it. But I don’t know a lot about it and I don’t know that others know a lot about it.

This interview took place on August 4,1997. Now the way I understand it is that Mormons were upset about his comments so in the October 1997 General Conference, he said this to LDS members:

“I personally have been much quoted, and in a few instances misquoted and misunderstood. I think that’s to be expected. None of you need worry because you read something that was incompletely reported. You need not worry that I do not understand some matters of doctrine. I think I understand them thoroughly, and it is unfortunate that the reporting may not make this clear. I hope you will never look to the public press as the authority on the doctrines of the Church. (1997 October General Conference)”

So he basically blamed Time magazine for misquoting him. Instead of take responsibility for his words he blamed someone else.

Kate,
GBH was playing that Mormon game of obfuscation and he blew it.
The Mormon missionaries are not upfront about the most basic doctrines and practices of the Mormon church. Their goal is to get people into the baptismal tank and keep their numbers up.
The Mormon plan of salvation is that members are to do the work in order to become gods. Does anyone think that revealing all of this is going to help recruitment numbers?
If anyone ever heard Billy Graham preach he was straight forward about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There was no bait and switch con game going on. It was very simple. We are separated from God because of our sin. God loved us so much that he died for us to pay the penalty for our sin. We receive this gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ. The life we live, our behavior, is in thanksgiving to God for what He has done for us. Our works reflect our faith.
No need to hide anything.

The Gospel is the good news : 1Cor.15:1-4 . What this young man shared was simple
yet so dynamic. Unfortunately there are “other gospels” out there ,all competing for
our attention. This is not anything new — Gal.1:8 . I remember when I first read of
what I would call, the Mormon gospel. It claims of being a system of laws and ordin-
ances . That was unfortunate to find out . It sure does’nt sound like what the young man
on the video has experienced . The part of this Mormon system, the “restored ” gospel,
that is really troubling though, to me, is that Mormon leaders have exhibited a
disturbing pattern of creating “laws” , dropping “laws”, creating “ordinances” and
dropping ordinances, creating ” commandments” and then dumping them , all in the
name of spiritual guidance received from God and then relayed to submissive LDS.
All this behavior justified by LDS because of their submitting to a prophet’s promise
to never lead them astray. This sure stands in stark contrast to the Gospel in the
New Testament. May the Mormon people see the value in trading their prophet for
THE Prophet[Heb1:2] and trading their system of laws and ordinances for the authentic
gospel preached by Jesus’ original Apostles. May God give them the help to do this.
Rom. 10:1-4; Heb.7:25

Mike,
That’s what “religion” is all about for some people.
They never figure out that rituals, rites and ordinances isn’t what’s important.
It’s easier because it’s like a religious recipe. It’s the spiritual equivalent of the Burger King drive through routine and ordering a #10. It’s quick, easy, momentarily satisfying but has limited spiritual nutrition.